Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am delighted to be speaking in this debate today because, quite frankly, if this is the worst gripe that those members opposite can come up with today then our government is clearly doing a lot of things right. Seriously, this MPI beggars belief, coming from those opposite who have spent the last six years in government. For the member for Adelaide to be suggesting that a lack of investment in skills and training is now impacting on jobs is surely a much greater reflection on the poor policies of the former Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments. In simple and very practical terms, most trade training courses have a duration of much longer than six months. So the reality is that it will take some years to repair the damage that the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments did to the trade training sector. It will certainly take much more than six months to address the skills shortage that our nation does indeed face as a result of Labor's totally ineffective policies in this area.

Those policies included the spectacularly forgettable Productivity Places Program, which, like many of Labor's thought bubbles, was an expensive and astronomical failure. It was designed to train over 711,000 people. This $2.1 billion program was so badly administered that, according to documents obtained through FOI, evaluators could not even determine who had received training. The program failed to provide tangible employment outcomes, with more than half of the participants not finding a job and only 20 per cent finding a job in the area they had received training for. Then, in 2007, Labor committed $2.5 billion to build trade training centres in every single one of Australia's 2,650 secondary schools but, once again, they failed to deliver. Through the course of their term, only $1.4 billion of that funding was allocated for 511 trade training centres, and just 320 of these centres have actually commenced operation. This is Labor's track record. This is how they approached the need to train and upskill Australia's workforce when they were in office.

On top of bad policy, they also inflicted increased costs on registered training organisations, with some fees rising by 400 per cent. In the 12 months leading up to the last election, Labor stripped $600 million of employer incentives for many vocational education programs. They piled more red tape and regulation on the sector, which acted as a disincentive.

When it comes to talking about an impact on Australian jobs, Labor introduced the job-destroying carbon tax that added to the cost of all businesses through increased energy prices. I am quite gobsmacked that the member for Adelaide has the gall to put forward such a—quite frankly—lame MPI, given her party's track record.

When it comes to skills shortages, traditional trades and engineering are the most serious areas of concern in this country. As an engineer by profession, I take every opportunity I can to encourage young people into engineering and to study maths and science at school. Sadly, these two disciplines have faltered under the Labor government and their national curriculum. I hope that the review that we are currently conducting can help reverse the trend and restore the value of maths and science in order that we have more students going into science and also into engineering. I note that this week many members of this House have met with scientists as part of the Science meets Parliament program, which is just terrific. There certainly should be much greater engagement between individual MPs and senators, scientists and the scientific community.

When it comes to traditional trades, it is a sad fact that completion rates for apprenticeships in this country fell to just 48 per cent under the Labor government. In contrast, the coalition has announced positive plans to boost apprenticeships. As promised during the last election, we will introduce a trade support loan initiative. It is a practical plan to help young people who are completing an apprenticeship in much the same way our higher education loans system helps young people who go to university. I am happy to note that we are on track to implement those loans from July this year. Additionally, the government is engaging with the vocational education industry and the community through a specially formed VET review task force that is seeking stakeholder input through workshops around the country. The government is committed to a strong and robust Australian apprenticeship system that meets the needs of employers whilst delivering skilled workers.

Unlike Labor, the coalition government is committed to consulting stakeholders and ensuring that the money we invest in the trade training sector achieves results. This will, of course, take some time, but it is important to make the time to get it right.

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